Ask Mr. Gold: Cuban Corn on the Cob, Con Clown

Okay, so I just got back from New York, where I ate, for the first time in my life and hopefully not my last, this Cuban corn on the cob on a stick with cheese and spices and lime. Where in Los Angeles can I find this?

--Dave, West Hollywood

Dear Dave:

I remember it well, a train puttering through the Peruvian altiplano, wheezing to a halt at any hamlet with four alpacas or three villagers, tiny, stout women crashing through the cars bearing their loads of hot corn, the kernels as big as pigeon eggs, I swear to you, nearly engulfed in their mantles of fresh, white cheese. Sorry - I was daydreaming.

Anyway, I hope Mexican corn on the cob on a stick counts. Because that's kind of everywhere, especially on sidewalks in Huntington Park, on Whittier Boulevard and in the Westlake area, even if you do find squeeze bottles of mayonnaise instead of the cheese most of the time. (The effect is pretty similar.)

A reliable East L.A. spot, which you may already go to for tacos de canasta; zucchini-flower quesadillas; lamb barbacoa; and chopped beef-head tacos al vapor, the cooking of which seems to involve a neatly folded beach towel, is the group of street-food vendors that gathers evenings in a parking lot on Breed just north of Caesar Chavez in Boyle Heights. And if you're in the mood, the resident clown can twist you a crimson and red burro out of his lavish stock of balloons.